Letter to a newly-diagnosed friend

The club no one wants to join Dear L This isn’t a fun place to be, in fact, it is B……y confusing and scary   You see, there is no typical case, so no one is really able to tell you what is going to happen. The next few weeks you might feel you are on...

Patients have a Champion

At last – someone to fight for us Sometimes, it can feel as if nobody listens to what you say.  Querying my treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital, the nurse brushed me aside with the comment “you are only a patient”. I found out that doctors and...

Pain – and ways to help

Good thing to come out of Covid  Thanks to some rather high-profile people catching Covid, which gave them pain in their joints, I found pain reiief for my joint pain has improved remarkably in the past two years.  It’s surprising what can happen when the prime...

British Gas

Energy costs hit the vulnerable   Faced with an unexplained £6,000 bill from British Gas, when Age UK asked me to talk to an APPG about my experience, I welcomed the chance. APPGs (All Party Parliamentary Groups) consist of MPs and Peers from all political...

Strikes won’t cure the NHS

But will Patricia Hewitt improve efficiency? I do wonder who is in charge of today’s NHS?  Ministers seem to be on a merry-go-round producing a new incumbent every month or so. Recently, one of these Ministers set the NHS the tasks of improving obesity figures,...

Plea for the next Prime Minister

Choosing the next Prime Minister First, can I suggest it would save everyone’s time and money if, next time, they have to choose a new Prime Minister, they did away with all the time-consuming jiggery-pokery when selecting a new leader? My suggestion is shut all...